Cazenovia residents received the bad news about the closing of Cazenovia College late last year.

Patricia Carmeli, the owner of Pewter Spoon Cafe, thinks she can weather the change.

“I don’t see it as a major impact on me financially," she said.

However, she acknowledged she’ll still see a big change. The Pewter Spoon Café owner has been in business for more than a decade and a Cazenovia resident for almost 20 years.

“The biggest effects, I think, are gonna be just that we’re a small community here," she said. "We have a lot of professors who moved into the area who come and sit and chat for hours over a latte. It's the human aspect of it that I think is going to be mostly felt."

That includes the hiring of employees.

Carmeli said it’ll be a big issue that the closing of the college will make harder to address. She said she’s employed college students at the Pewter Spoon because it fit what they needed. Now, it’ll be even tougher.

“The high school kids are a little on the young side to work at the café because they have school and they’ve got sports," Carmeli said. "A lot of them are too young to actually legally serve the beer and the wine that we also offer here. The college kids fit that niche because they were old enough to do that, and they have very flexible schedules."

In addition to coffee, beer and wine, the café serves a wide selection of sandwiches and salads.

Carmeli said it takes a while to get new employees caught up on everything, which makes flexible schedules very important.

To find staff, social media is a resource they will continue to use.

“Very often, my daughter will post something on Facebook when we’re looking for employees," she said. "We’ve done Craigslist."

The platforms become even more essential without Cazenovia College. While Pewter Spoon is Carmeli’s priority, she hopes the community stays the same.

“I would like the character of the community to be preserved," said Carmeli. "It is a quaint community.”